Fantasy sports neural engine and method of using same

ABSTRACT

An apparatus, system and method for a neural engine for recommending picks in an on-line fantasy sport draft and in on-line fantasy trades. The apparatus, system and method may include at least one computing memory having associated therewith a plurality of rules, wherein at least ones of the plurality of rules include historical performance information for at least two fantasy sports teams in at least two fantasy sports leagues, wherein one of the at least two fantasy sports leagues is associated with the on-line fantasy sports draft, and expert information regarding the picks in the on-line fantasy sports draft. The present invention may additionally include at least one computer processor that applies ones of the plurality of rules drawn from the at least one computing memory to arrive at a recommendation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/563,117, filed Sep. 19, 2009 and claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/192,601, entitled “Fantasy SportsNeural Engine And Method Of Using Same”, filed Sep. 19, 2008, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein as if set forthherein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The instant invention relates to neural engines, and in particular to arules-based neural engine for use in on-line fantasy sports games.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A fantasy league, also referred to as a rotisserie, roto, or simulationleague, is a game wherein participants act as team owners and generate ateam that competes against the teams of other fantasy owners based onstatistics generated by real world players or teams. Common variantstrack points correspondent to the statistical performance of the realworld teams or players. More complex fantasy leagues use complexcomputer modeling of real world games. In fantasy, there is typically anability to trade, cut, and sign players like a real sports owner.

It's estimated that 29.9 million people age 12 and above in the U.S. andCanada played fantasy sports in 2007, and 19.4 million people playedfantasy sports in 2006. A 2006 study showed 22 percent of U.S. adultmales 18 to 49 years old with Internet access, play fantasy sports.Fantasy is estimated to have a $3$4 Billion industry. In addition topopularity in the U.S. and Canada of fantasy based on football,baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and tennis, fantasy is popularthroughout the world with leagues for soccer, Australian-rules football,cricket and other non-U.S. based sports.

The need exists for an improved fantasy draft recommendations, improvedfantasy trade recommendations, and improved input of draft picks in alive fantasy draft into an online environment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is and includes an apparatus, system and methodfor a neural engine for recommending picks in an on-line fantasy sportdraft occurring over at least one network. The apparatus, system andmethod may include at least one computing memory having associatedtherewith a plurality of rules, wherein at least ones of the pluralityof rules include historical performance information for at least twofantasy sports teams in at least two fantasy sports leagues, wherein oneof the at least two fantasy sports leagues is associated with theon-line fantasy sports draft, and expert information regarding the picksin the on-line fantasy sports draft, wherein the historical informationis correlated with the expert information to provide a tendency for thepicks in the on-line fantasy sports draft. The present invention mayadditionally include at least one computer processor that applies onesof the plurality of rules drawn from the at least one computing memoryto arrive at a recommended one of the picks, and at least one computingport that accesses, in accordance with at least one of the plurality ofrules, the at least two fantasy sports leagues, and that allows foron-line selection of at least the recommended one of the picks.

The present invention may additionally include a computerized timer fortiming between ones of the picks. An advertisement service mayadditionally provide at least one relevant advertisement during thetiming.

The present invention may additionally include a hardware input forinputting to on-line a draft pick selection in a fantasy draft. Thehardware input may read a physical representation of the draft pick,such as a sticker, and may be associated with at least one computingport. The draft pick selection may auto-populate the selected draft pickto the selecting fantasy sports team. The hardware input may be oneselected from the group of a bar code scanner, an RF reader, and an OCRscanner.

The present invention may additionally include a trade comparator forproviding at least one trade recommendation in an on-line fantasy sportleague. The trade comparator may include at least one computing memoryhaving associated therewith a plurality of rules, wherein at least onesof the plurality of rules include historical trade offers for at leasttwo fantasy sports teams in at least two fantasy sports leagues, whereinone of the at least two fantasy sports leagues is associated with theon-line fantasy sports league, historical trade acceptances for the atleast two fantasy sports teams in the at least two fantasy sportsleagues, wherein one of the at least two fantasy sports leagues isassociated with the on-line fantasy sports league, and expertinformation regarding relative values of players in the on-line fantasysports league, wherein the historical trade offers and the historicaltrade acceptances are correlated with the expert information to providethe at least one trade recommendation.

Thus, the present invention provides improved fantasy draftrecommendations, improved fantasy trade recommendations, and improvedinput of draft picks in a live fantasy draft into an online environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Understanding of the present invention will be facilitated byconsideration of the following detailed description of the embodimentsof the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which like numerals refer to like parts and in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a fantasy draft, according to an aspect of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a fantasy draft incorporating a neural engine,according to an aspect of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a drafting environment having a visual display,according to an aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is to be understood that the figures and descriptions of the presentinvention have been simplified to illustrate elements that are relevantfor a clear understanding of the present invention, while eliminating,for the purpose of clarity, many other elements found in typicalrules-based neural engines. Those of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that other elements and/or steps are desirable and/or requiredin implementing the present invention. However, because such elementsand steps are well known in the art, and because they do not facilitatea better understanding of the present invention, a discussion of suchelements and steps is not provided herein. The disclosure herein isdirected to all such variations and modifications to such elements andmethods known to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, the embodimentsidentified and illustrated herein are for exemplary purposes only, andare not meant to be exclusive or limited in their description of thepresent invention.

The present invention is and includes a neural engine for use in on-linefantasy sports. As used herein, the term neural network or neural enginerefers to an engine or network having resident therein a plurality ofrules, wherein, upon access to information to which such rules may beapplied, the rules may be updated, modified, or varied as to which nextset of those rules is applied. A neural engine or network would include,in brief, computer models, algorithms, comparisons, calculations and thelike designed to simulate the behavior of human reasoning and learning,but additionally capable of such simulation with data quantities,breadth of calculations and the like that are beyond human capabilities,such as in pattern recognition, data accumulation, language processing,and comparative problem solving. The goal of neural networking is alearning by the network such that self-directed information processingmay occur. Such an engine may be, for example, a business rules enginethat is associated with one or more processors, which may be residentlocally and/or at one or more servers. General requirements forconstruction of generic architectures for neural engines and/or networksas understood by those skilled in the art may be used in conjunctionwith the present invention to perform the novel functionalities asdescribe hereinthroughout.

Further, as used herein, the term on-line includes any networktelecommunications, including, for example, PC based internetcommunications, intranet communications, extranet communications,cellular telephonic communications, personal digital assistantcommunications, and the like. Further, as used herein, the term fantasysports is intended to refer to any recreational activity, orprofessional, social, or the like activity, in which real world athletesor entertainment figures are selected for placement as “players” onto avirtual team, and wherein the statistics accumulated by those real worldathletes and/or entertainment figures affect the standing and/orposition of that virtual team within and/or relative to, for example, aleague of at least one similar team, and further wherein one or moresuch virtual teams, and the players thereon, are controlled orinfluenced by the party or user controlling the neural engine of thepresent invention.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and as illustratedin FIG. 1, fantasy sports leagues are often initialized upon drafting ofthe players who will reside on each respective virtual sports team,wherein such drafting frequently occurs before or proximate to thebeginning of the subject real world sports season. For example, in afantasy sports football league, participants in the league may draftactual National Football League (“NFL”) players at any number ofpredetermined positions, prior to or proximate to the start of theNational Football League season. Such players, upon being drafted, mayhave their respective statistics attributed to the fantasy sports teamthat drafted such player.

The present invention may provide a neural engine, as illustrated inFIG. 2, that may enable one or more users in a fantasy sports league toengage in a “draft” regarding players to be drafted in that subjectvirtual sports league. As contemplated herein, the present invention maybe used for “real” or “actual” drafts, meaning those drafts that areconsidered final for a fantasy league, or for a “mock” draft, meaning apreliminary or practice draft in which the draft results are not finalresults for a fantasy league. In a typical prior mock draft, experts ora computerized algorithm may select the players drafted by the teamother than the team or teams participating directly in the mock draft,that is, expert projections are used to suggest what players will beselected in what order up to the draft pick of the team requestingparticipation in the mock draft. Upon the occurrence of each pick ofthat team in the mock draft, that team is thus informed what playersshould be available to that team, in accordance with the expertprojections, at the time of that team's pick in that team's draft. Thisis referred to as a mock draft because, in typical embodiments, thesubject team or teams engages in this draft as a trial before the actualdraft for that player's fantasy league occurs. As used herein, the terms“draft” and “rounds” are intended to refer to any drafting mechanismemployed for fantasy sports leagues, including, but not limited to,drafts in which a player's picking position within each round israndomly selected, drafts in which a players picking position israndomly selected in even numbered rounds and is “snaked” back to in oddnumber rounds, and drafts in which players odd numbered rounds arerandomly selected and even numbered picks are snaked back to. Likewise,it is within the understanding of the present invention that, in certainsports leagues, players may be maintained, or “kept”, by a fantasy teamfrom one year to the next, and such kept players may effect a team'sdrafting position, or whether a team has any draft pick within certainrounds of a draft, for example.

Returning now to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, theneural engine of FIG. 2 may allow for a participation of any team orteams within a league in a mock draft. As such, the present inventionmay provide the mock draft capability discussed hereinthroughout eitherat the same on-line location as the requesting player's league isresident, i.e., as a tool within the fantasy sports website on which theplayers league will occur once the draft actually occurs, or may beemployed at a separate on-line location as a separate tool from theplayer's league location. For example, if a player participates in afantasy league on Yahoo! Sports, the present invention may be providedas a tool to prepare that player for the draft on the Yahoo! Sportssite, or the present invention may be provided on a third party website,such as for a fee on a per use, per sport, per season, or similar basis.

The neural engine of the present invention, as referenced hereinabove,includes a plurality of rules that are applied to information in orderto better approximate the results of the actual draft in the mock draftthan does the prior art. More specifically, the neural engine of thepresent invention draws on actual information related to other teams andother players in the respective sports league for which the actual draftcorrespondent to the mock draft is to occur.

More specifically, it is typical that players in a given fantasy sportsleague will participate in multiple years in that same fantasy sportsleague, and it is also often the case that multiple players who playtogether in one fantasy sports league may also play together in otherfantasy sports leagues. Thus, the rules of the present invention areapplied to each player's historical actions within each sports leagueaccessible to the neural engine, to thereby provide a greatly improvedprojection of what each player or team in each league is most likely todo once an actual draft occurs. Needless to say, in order for the mockdraft requesting player to provide access from the rules of the presentinvention to historical information, wherein that historical informationis regarding other players in a given sports league, the requestingplayer may enter to the present invention other sports leagues, or allsports leagues, of which that player is a member, along with user namesand passwords to enter such sports leagues, or any other methodologiesof allowing an accessing by the present invention known to those skilledin the pertinent art, to thereby allow the neural engine of the presentinvention to access those sports leagues, and assess the players for theother teams for not only the league for which the mock draft isrequested, but similarly for all leagues in which the players in theleague subject to the mock draft also play against the requestingplayer/team. Thus, the present invention may preferably have access tothe tendencies of each other player or team in the league for which themock draft is requested across all leagues, and across all fantasysports.

More specifically, the rules of the neural engine of the presentinvention may have access to rosters of the teams of interest in allleagues relating to the requested fantasy sport, and the draft historyof the subject teams in all leagues, that is, what players and whatposition each team has a tendency to fill in each round of a previousdraft, what players have been kept by the subject teams, what positionsthe subject teams have a tendency to keep, what are the favorite realworld sports teams of the subject teams, and, to the extent suchinformation is available on any of the subject websites, each of thesubject teams typical, average, or year by year performance in sportsleagues, and the like. Further, the rules may have available one or moreexpert projection lists as referenced hereinabove, wherein, if multipleexpert lists are made available, such lists may be averaged, or weightedaveraged, for example, in order to assess, as was done in the prior art,a likely mock draft selection order were one or more experts to beparticipating in the draft.

Thus, the neural engine of the present invention has available thereto,in essence, a likely draft order list that other teams in the subjectfantasy sports league will employ or have access to when making theirrespective actual draft selections, as well as a series of rules forminga neural network, wherein the neural network may suggest tendencies,favorite players, favorite teams, favored positions, and the like, ofother teams in the fantasy sports league. Additionally, an opposingteam's historic draft may be compared against, for example, historicexpert and/or magazine lists, in order to possibly assess whether anopposing fantasy player has historically used a particular list, therebysuggesting to the neural engine that particular current expert list maybe used by that opposing team in a current draft. For example, thefactors assessed by the aforementioned rules may be weighted, such aswherein a certain team, such as in the aforementioned NFL fantasy leagueexample, has either kept or drafted a running back in each of the firsttwo rounds of the actual virtual draft correspondent the subject leaguein four of the last five years. In such an exemplary embodiment, therules would thus, based on this information, suggest, for example, thatother team in the subject league has a 92% chance of selecting a runningback in round one, and an 80% chance of selecting a running back inround two. Further, it may be that other subject team was the “winner”of that fantasy league in the preceding year, thus suggesting there wasa high probability that subject team would be convinced that thestrategy employed, that is, taking a running back in each of rounds oneand two, would prove successful. Further, it may be the case that, basedon the aforementioned results of the experts likely draft list, arunning back from what has been assessed as that player's favoritefootball team is likely to be drafted as one of the top two runningbacks in the upcoming fantasy football season. Finally, it may beassessed that other fantasy team receives a high rating from the subjectleague's website for staying updated, that is, the subject websiteassesses that the subject other team has regularly been obtaining newsand updates from the subject website regarding the upcoming draft forthe fantasy league, and/or has historically kept abreast of the qualityof available players in-season during past seasons, and/or hashistorically managed to avoid drafting players hurt at the last minutebefore a fantasy draft.

In light of the probabilities generated as discussed hereinabove inaccordance with application of the rules to the subject information, theneural engine of the present invention may be enabled to formulate amodifiable draft pick selection order. More specifically, if therequesting team for the mock draft picks fourth in round one of the mockdraft, and seventh in round two of the mock draft, the neural engine ofthe present invention may project, with far greater likelihood ofsuccess than the prior art, the likely selections of the preceding threeteams in round one of the draft. At that time, the requesting team mayassess the remaining available players, and make his or her selection atthe number four pick of round one. The neural engine of the presentinvention may then generate, taking into account the player selected bythe requesting team and the mock draft at pick number four, the playerselected at picks number five through ten of round one, and one throughsix of round two (in a ten team draft), for example, in part byemploying the information to which the rules were applied, and theprobability factors generated by the rules as to which players were mostlikely to be selected, to provide a greatly increased likelihood thatthe mock draft selections for the opposing teams in a given fantasyleague will be more likely to occur in the actual draft of the fantasyleague. At that time, the requesting team may make selection numberseven in round two, which will again modify the available players, andwhich will thus also effect the options available to the playersselecting thereafter in round two and in round three prior to the nextselection of the requesting team, which will therefore, of course, be atleast partially affect the probabilities of which players will beselected by those subject teams.

Thereby, the present invention provides a neural engine that may loginas the requesting player, such as to one or more fantasy leaguewebsites, may access any of a myriad of information regarding therequesting team and the other teams in the league with that requestingteam, wherein such information may be gained from any website via, forexample, a normalization engine as will be understood to those skilledin the art, and the neural engine of the present invention may applyrules to that information to generate a plurality of probability factorsas to which players will be selected from an expert list by the actualowners, or managers, of the other teams in the fantasy sports leaguethat is the subject of the requested mock draft.

More specifically, for example, after logging in and retrievinginformation regarding the actions and attributes of other fantasy teammanagers, the neural engine may further perform a comparison of themanaged teams to identify and match the same team manager acrossdifferent fantasy teams in one or more fantasy leagues. Such comparisonmay be made, for example, by matching email addresses for each teammanager. If the email addresses of the managers are identical, theneural engine may determine that these teams are owned and managed bythe same manager, and attribute collected information accordingly. Ifthe email addresses are not identical, but contain a variable percentidentity match (such as greater than 50% of the email characters match),the neural engine can query the user to see if these two managers are,in fact, the same. Likewise, even in the case of a 100% identical match,the user may override the neural engine to proceed as if the comparedmanagers are different or the same entity. In another example, the samerules as described above for comparison of manager email addresses maybe used when comparing the names of the fantasy teams. In such a case,the neural engine may again query the user to ask whether or not theidentical or similarly named teams are managed by the same manager.Thus, the mock draft requester may, throughout the present invention,enter preferences, modify rules, or change picks or identities, amongother actions, for example, to obtain the most realistic mock draftpossible.

Needless to say, the neural engine of the present invention may also beemployed with regard to other options available to a team in a fantasyleague that are dependent on the cognitive processes of other owners inthe subject fantasy league, such as proposed fantasy league trades, forexample. In such other embodiments, the neural engine may assess, forexample, the typical fairness of trades proposed or engaged in by theproposing team, may access an experts' list or an average of experts'lists that allow for a suggested fairness of the proposed trade by theneural engine of the present invention, and/or the neural engine of thepresent invention may provide a projection of the likely effect, infantasy sports points or a similar measuring mechanism, on all teams inthe league were the proposed trade to be accepted. Other factors, suchas those referenced hereinabove with regard to the mock draft exemplaryembodiment, may also be employed by the neural engine of the presentinvention in deciding whether or not to recommend that the proposedtrade occur. The outcome of this exemplary embodiment may be, forexample, the recommendation of one or more counter proposed trades,which may, for example, be rated on a fairness scale, that is, as morefair to one team or to the other, or as most fair to both teams, or maybe simply given a green light, a red light, a thumbs up, a thumbs down,or the like. Needless to say, such a trade evaluation system may be usednot only to evaluate trades offered, but to customize a trade to bepotentially offered in the future. In other words, the present inventionmay also be used to construct trades based on information pertaining to,without limitation, published knowledge, expert opinion and personaland/or historical preferences of the subject or a targeted recipientfantasy team manager(s).

Thus, the neural engine of the present invention uses information gainedthrough application of rules to evaluate prior, current, or futureactions of the requesting user. For example, the neural engine, based onapplication of the rules and the probabilities gained thereby, may givea requesting user pointers in real time during a mock draft, such asbefore or after a pick is made. Needless to say, in certain modes, itmay be more advantageous to provide such suggestions or pointers after apick is made during a mock draft, not only to enforce the typical rulesthat would be enforced during an actual draft, i.e., no withdrawing apick once a pick is made, but additionally to allow for the requestinguser to engage in a first mock draft, accumulate a series of pointers,and then purchase additional mocked draft eligibilities to see if theuser can improve draft outcomes using the pointers gained.

For example, during a mock draft, the requesting user in an NFL fantasyleague may select a running back. The neural engine may recognize, basedon the information and probabilities available to the neural engine,that, of the four teams that will pick between the requesting user'sselection of a running back and the user's next selection when the draftorder returns to that user, three of those other teams have either keptor already drafted a running back, and further that there is one otherrunning back that the experts rate as approximately equivalent to therunning back the requesting user just selected. As such, the neuralengine may provide a recommendation that the requesting user would havehad a very high probability that either the running selected or theequivalent running back would have been available at the requestinguser's next pick, i.e., five picks after the requesting user's currentpick, and consequently the requesting user should not waste the earlierpick on the running back that was just selected when the requesting userengages in that user's actual draft.

In an additional exemplary embodiment, the neural engine may provide asuggestion before a pick is made. For example, in a baseball draft, theneural engine may suggest that, as rated by the experts, there is asingle shortstop available in a first tier of shortstops when arequesting user is about to pick in a mock fantasy baseball draft, andthe neural engine may similarly suggest that all mock teams other thanthe requesting user's team have already selected a starting firstbaseman, thereby making it unlikely that any of those other teams willselect another first baseman in the current or immediately subsequentrounds, and further that there are five first tier second basemen stillavailable in accordance with the expert's ratings. Thus, the rules ofthe neural engine may provide the suggestion or conclusion that, becauseit is likely a first baseman will be available in a subsequent round,and it is unlikely that all five first tier second basemen will beselected before the following round, the requesting user should take thelast remaining top tier shortstop with the user's current pick. Needlessto say, this mock draft selection will be much more highly predictivethan prior art draft selection recommendation engines, at least in thatthe neural engine of the present invention has learned and applied, inadvance of the actual draft rather than during the actual draft, whatthe tendencies and the preferences of the competitor teams will be.

In yet an additional exemplary embodiment, the neural engine mayrecognize that, of the eight teams in a mock draft that will pick beforethe next pick of a requesting user, only one of the eight teams has anyhistory of taking a backup (or additional) quarterback before roundeight. As such, if the requesting user is currently making a selectionin round seven, there is a ⅞ chance that the requesting user need nottake a quarterback in round seven, but rather may wait to select aquarterback until at least round eight.

Additionally, the neural engine of the present invention is a learningengine. That is, the neural engine may track, based on its accessibilityto the requesting user's actual fantasy leagues, the actual draftoutcome of the draft to which the neural engine prepared a mock draft,and may thus gauge the success rate of the neural engine predictions foreach team's selection. The neural engine may then feed back thatinformation to improve the success rate of prediction for some or all ofthe opposing teams for the next mock draft in that fantasy sport or adifferent fantasy sport.

While the aforementioned exemplary embodiments describe the use of theneural engine in a mock draft, it almost goes without saying that theneural engine may also be used in a live draft. In this embodiment, theuser may manually fill draft picks, or have auto filled draft picks asthe draft progresses, and thus may allow the neural engine to learn,predict and recommend to the user as described hereinthroughout duringan actual draft. For example, existing engines simply suggest, during alive draft, what player to pick based on those players already picked,and optionally employ a preset, static ranking of all available players,while the present invention may suggest a player based not only on priorpicks, but also on a projection of what other teams or managersparticipating in the draft will do subsequent to a current pick. Ofcourse, the certainty probability of each such projection will improveas each actual pick is made.

Returning now to the trade predictor aspects of the present invention,the neural engine may compare the trade proposal and the players in thetrade proposal based on any statistical measure and/or any fantasysports scoring schema.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art in light of thedisclosure herein that the neural engine of the present invention, asdiscussed hereinabove, may rate a suggested trade, and in so doing mayrecommend the addition or removal of players until the value parametersof the trade meet preexisting requirements. Likewise, one of theparameters assessed by the neural engine when vetting a trade may be thevalue of players currently on other teams, that is, those teams that maynot be involved in the presently suggested trade. Thereby, the neuralengine provides a platform for suggesting multi-team trades, rather thanthe typical two team trades, in order to improve the fairness of tradeproposals.

In accordance with the aforementioned trade proposal assessments, teamsin a given fantasy league may be rated as to their respective quality astrading partners, either or both for the trades they suggest or thetrades they accept. For example, by providing access to the user'sleague or leagues and attributing historical information of that userand the other fantasy managers in those leagues, each team may beassessed as to its trading prowess, thereby signaling other teams as tothat team's ability to successfully agree on trades. Similarly, thenumber of trades or proposed trades a team engages in, both successfullyand unsuccessfully, in a given year or over some other predeterminedtime frame, may allow for a team to be given an additional trade rating.Finally, either with respect to rating a team's trading prowess orsimply for feedback as to what trades should or should not have beenengaged in, the neural engine of the present invention may allow forback-testing of previously executed trades that were not assessed by theneural engine. Needless to say, this would also allow for the neuralengine to rate the trading prowess of a given fantasy team manager, andto decide whether or not it would have suggested that such a trade gothrough, and, based on the subsequent results of the trade, the neuralengine would be enabled to learn whether its suggestion would have beencorrect or incorrect, thereby allowing for further refinement of theneural engines rules.

Also related to the neural engine of the present invention in general,and more specifically to any and all fantasy sports leagues, is a drafttool to assist in filling on-line fantasy sports rosters. Many leaguesengage in either on-line or “live” drafting. In such cases, it istypical that the drafting entity that is currently “on the clock”, thatis, the party that is presently expected to make a draft selection, isgiven a specified allowable time frame within which to make such aselection. The present invention advantageously provides such a timer,such as, for example, providing a digital or analog clock on a computerscreen that may be displayed to the teams then participating in thedraft, and wherein the time given to each team to allow that team tomake its selection may be decided in any of a number of ways, such asentry by the commissioner, or vote by the members of the league, forexample. Needless to say, the time made available may vary from round toround, such as wherein two minutes is given in the first three rounds ofa draft, one minute is given in the next ten rounds of a draft, andthirty seconds is allowed for all rounds of a draft thereafter. Thereby,as depicted generally in FIG. 3, the present invention may provide aclock that may count down the time remaining for a team to make itsselection, and which clock may stop counting down when such a selectionis made. The making of a selection may be indicated to a subjectcomputer from any computing terminal connected to a network on which thepresent invention is available, such as by hitting the enter key at thecomputing terminal or hitting a pick button connected to, for example, aport on the computing terminal, such as a USB port on the computingterminal, and that simply indicates to the present invention that adraft selection has been made. It almost goes without saying, to theextent a user has accessible to the user a website on which thepresently drafting fantasy sports league is provided, the user maypreferably be enabled to toggle between the timer of the presentinvention and that user's fantasy sports website or other aspects ofthat fantasy sports website, such as research and statistics.

In relation to the timer discussed hereinabove, the present inventionmay additionally provide a “ticker”, wherein such ticker displays acertain number of previous selections, or the selections previouslyselected by the currently selecting team, or selections made by otherteams in that team's division, for example. The upcoming draft order ofteams to select a player may also be shown, such as a scrolling list ofupcoming fantasy teams in the current round, or simply an “on deck” and“in the hole” slot to identify the next two teams set to make aselection. Such a ticker may be made available in any number of ways,including, real time manual entry of the players selected by eachdrafting team as those selections are made. Needless to say, such manualentry provides an inconvenience, particularly where the time window thatis allowable in which to make a pick is small. However, the presentinvention advantageously provides an automated methodology whereby draftpicks may be entered via computing terminal in real time.

This methodology provided by the present invention may entail theinclusion of stickers, paper, or the like, on which the names of playersavailable to be drafted are included, and which stickers or the likeinclude thereon one or more identifying characteristics. Suchidentifying characteristics may be, for example, a barcode, a numericcode, an RF tag, or the like, and such identifying characteristicspreferably uniquely identify, within a database associated with thesoftware of the present invention, at least a unique player, a positionof the player, and a real world team of the player, previouslyassociated with the unique identifying characteristic. Thereby,operating under the assumption that, in the above example, an allowabletime per round, as well as a draft order, has been entered to thepresent invention, the present invention is aware of which team iscurrently drafting, and, if a physical scan of a sticker having a uniqueidentifying characteristic is made at the time that sticker is placed onto a draft board, in a live draft for example, or a computerized code isscanned as the pick is made and placed on an on-line draft board, forexample, the draft clock in the aforementioned example may stop due tothe making of a selection, the player scanned is automatically includedon the team performing the scan, and a real time update occurs as to theremaining available players and positions thereof, the upcoming teamspicking, and the roster to which the preceding selection was just added.

In a physical embodiment, such a scan may include, for example, scanninga sticker on an OCR scanner, scanning a sticker with a barcode or penscanner communicatively connected to a computing terminal and/orprocessor, which computing terminal and/or processor may preferably beresident at the draft location, or bringing the sticker in proximity toan RF tag reader, for example. Such a scanner, such as an OCR scanner, abar code scanner, an RF reader, of the like, may be made available tothe computer processor via a USB port, for example. Needless to say, asdiscussed hereinabove, to the extent uniquely identifyingcharacteristics are used to indicate that a fantasy team has made itsdraft selection, such a scan of an identifying characteristic mayindicate to the draft clock and the draft order that a selection hasbeen made, and consequently, in such an embodiment, hitting a button,such as the enter key, at the computing terminal, may no longer benecessary.

The present invention may be communicatively connected to a computermonitor, TV or other visual terminal, and thus the present invention mayalso provide “filler” audio-visual media between draft picks, such asbased upon, and scheduled according to, the amount of time availablebetween picks. Such media may be in any electronic form, be it anelectronic file or a streaming feed, as understood by those skilled inthe art, for example. Media may further be stored locally on a residentsystem, may be resident on a CD or DVD that comes in a “draft kit,” orretrieved from one or more remote databases communicatively connected tothe present invention, for example.

The filler media may be any sort of media relevant to the concurrentlyrunning draft. For example, the media may be recorded video clips of themost recently selected player playing in an actual game, such as a“highlight” clip. It may also be a pre-recorded video of the mostrecently selected player saying an entertaining phrase, such as “youpicked me in what round?”, or “I have to be on your team?”, for example.As can be appreciated, any sort of media can be used to provideentertainment between entered draft picks. Advertisements may also beplayed, for example. In another embodiment, the rules-based neuralengine can use the collected and/or learned information as describedabove, along with the progressing draft picks, to determine entertainingfacts associated with the selected player, such as determining theselected player's value to that fantasy team, rating the playerselected, determining statistical advantages or disadvantages, comparinghistorical information for that fantasy team manager, for example, andpresent positive or negative commentary regarding that most recentlyselected player, for use as “filler” media.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that manymodifications and variations of the present invention may be implementedwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it isintended that the present invention cover the modification andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. An interactive fantasy sports engine, comprising: at least oneprocessor comprising non-transitory computing code for: displaying, inassociation with at least one fantasy sports game, of relevantinformation regarding at least one of a plurality of players selectedfor a fantasy team; automatically providing, at least partially inassociation with said displaying, of highlight clips of actual gameaction directly related to the relevant information.
 2. The engine ofclaim 1, wherein the highlight clip comprises same-day in gamehighlights.
 3. The engine of claim 1, wherein the highlight clipcomprises a quote from the at least one player.
 4. The engine of claim1, wherein the related information comprises actual game playerperformance information.
 5. The engine of claim 1, wherein the relatedinformation comprises fantasy player performance information.
 6. Asports neural engine, comprising: means for displaying, in associationwith at least one sports game, of information relevant to a fantasysports team regarding at least one of a plurality of players selectedfor a fantasy team; means for automatically providing, at leastpartially in association with said means for displaying, of highlightclips of actual game action directly related to the at least one player.